Fantastic Four: Heatwave Chapter 2

Johnny Storm grinned as he ducked and weaved through the streets of New York, flying after a van filled with terrified bank robbers. He flew right up next to the driver’s window and shouted “Hey!” right into the driver’s ear. The driver swerved towards Johnny in surprise and Johnny flew up and out of the way of the van as the passengers shrieked in surprise and fired their guns towards Johnny.

Johnny shook his head as he casually dodged the bullets and called out to the robbers.

“Now now boys, if you’re going to fire at someone do it right.” With that Johnny shot off a line of fire fairly close to the van. The Driver swerved hard to avoid the flames and turned down another street in an attempt to get away from Johnny. He smiled followed along as the van tried hard to escape him. But Johnny was too fast as he shot off ahead of the van further down the street.

Scanning around he mumbled to himself. “Alright now where’s the spot I’m supposed to sending these guys?”

As he scanned the side streets something caught his eye and he smirked again. He came to a stop and turned around to face the van as it barreled down the street towards him and he put his hands on his hips and scowled.

“Oh what’s that? You guys wanted to come this way? Well that’s too bad!” And with that he fired off a line of fire across the street, completely cutting the robbers off. Desperate, the driver turned down the street Johnny had been looking down a minute earlier and floored it.

Johnny smiled as the van sped off and he mumbled to himself “Alright, just one more and we’re home.” He took off after the van, flying past them again and coming to a stop near the entrance to an alley.

He causally turned towards the van once more and called out. “You guys want to be fired or roasted?” before shooting off another fireball into the road in front of the van. The driver nearly flipped the van over trying to avoid the fireball and sped off into the alley way. He watched them go as he lazily floated after them into the alley. The bank robbers shrieked with panic as they continued to fire at the Torch. None of them, not even the driver who was too busy looking back at him noticed the fact that there was a giant wall of webbing blocking in the middle of the alley until it was too late and van ran headlong into the wall and came to a stop.

Alarmed the robbers quickly got out of the van and attempted to find a way to escape on foot but this was quickly thwarted as one bank robber was immediately pinned to the side of the van by a bunch of webbing and another one was yanked into the air and left dangling by a strand of webbing. The remaining two bank robbers looked around fearfully trying to locate their assailant when he landed on top of their van.

“Howdy boys, you guys had enough fun yet?” Spider-Man quipped

At this point Johnny came floating up to the van adding. “Because if not we can do this all day.” As he said this the sound of sirens appeared at the end of the alley along with flashing red and blue lights. The bank robbers looked from Spider-Man on the roof of their van, to the Human Torch floating above them wreathed in flame, to the end of the alley and the approaching police. Deciding that it wasn’t worth it to keep fighting they dropped their guns and got on the ground with their hands behind their heads. Johnny smiled at them and nodded his head.

“Wise choice.”

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On a roof several stories up Johnny and Spider-Man watched as the bank robbers were loaded up into a police van and taken away.

Johnny shrugged and said, “Eh what’s wrong with putting on a show now and again? Besides I just wanted to put on a light show and scare them into surrendering, you’re the one who suggested we do the wall of webbing.”

Spidey let out a “heh” as he looked down at the alley where the cops were attempting to figure out what to do about the van being stuck in the wall of webbing and the robber who was still stuck to the van.

“Yeah I guess that was probably overkill, though I guarantee those guys won’t be trying to rob banks anytime soon. Not after the show we put on here.”

Johnny chuckled as he surveyed the scene and said, “Yeah I guess so.” He turned his gaze towards the setting sun and asked. “So do you want to keep patrolling or are we calling it a night?”

Spidey shook his head. “Calling it a night, my wife’s coming back into town tonight and we’re getting dinner.”

Johnny smiled said. “Nice, is she done filming her new movie?”

Spidey shook his head. “No, she’s just coming back to do some press coverage then going back to doing some more filming. Her flight back is going is going to be in-“ He abruptly stopped talking and dropped into a defensive crouch.

Alarmed Johnny flamed up and began looking around while asking, “What is it?”

Spidey stayed frozen in place as he said. “I don’t know my spider senses are tingling but I don’t know what’s setting them…” He trailed off and then abruptly stood up and began to leap off of the building shouting. “Get off the roof, NOW!!”

Johnny obeyed and flew up off the roof right before it was engulfed in an explosion. He began rapidly scanning the scene trying to figure out the source of the explosion when something smashed into his back sending him flailing towards the street below. He spun around uncontrollably before managing to stop himself right before he hit the street. As he tried to look around and see what had attacked him he heard someone shout out.

“WHOA THERE, HOODOGGIE!!” As he turned towards the voice he saw Spider-Man land on a car while dodging what appeared to be a stream of water. He tracked the water back to its source he let out a sigh and mumbled to himself.

“Great, just what I needed right now.”

Floating above the duo was the Frightful Four. Lead as always by Wizard, this version of the Four was composed of Hydro-Man, Titania, and the Trapster. Wizard spread his hand out in greeting.

“Mr. Storm, nice to see you this fine evening. My associates and I have need of your services, so if you’ll just come along quietly…” Wizard stretched his hand out in Johnny’s direction. “…This will go so much smoother.”

Johnny grimaced and fired off a gout of flame in the Frightful Four’s direction. “Not on your life buddy!” Wizard frowned as he dodged the flames.

“A pity, but not unexpected.” A bit louder he said to his teammates, “Hydro-Man, take out Storm. Trapster, Titania, deal with Spider-Man!”

“You got it boss,” said Trapster as he and Titania charged towards Spider-Man. Spidey immediately flipped into the air and shot webbing at both Titania and Trapster’s eyes. He connected with Titania and she lost control trying to claw at the webbing on her eyes, which sent her flying full force into the car that Spidey had been on a moment before hand. Trapster had better luck as while Spidey managed to connect with him as well, Trapster was wearing goggles and ripped them off the moment that webbing connected with them.

He snarled at Spidey saying, “Oh yeah? I can do that too!” And with that he fired a string of glue at Spidey. Spidey managed to dodge this but Trapster fired a second string which connected with Spidey’s stomach and wrapped around his arms.

Spidey gulped at the sight of this and muttered “Uh oh” As Trapster started firing explosive caps in Spidey’s direction. Spidey started jumping around in an attempt to dodge the explosions as he shouted out to Johnny.

“Hey buddy can I get a little help over here?”

Unfortunately Johnny was a little busy at the moment as he was busy dodging the relentless water and electrical blasts that Hydro-Man and Wizard were firing off at him. Johnny, in an attempt to put some distance between him and his attackers shot up straight up in air and shot off some fireballs at Wizard and Hydro-Man. They both failed to notice this until it was too late as fireballs connected and blasted the two of them out of them air. Wizard hit the street hard and started to struggle to rise to his feet but Hydro-Man used his water to slow fall and then propelled himself at Johnny, screaming in rage as he shot a blast of water straight at Johnny. Johnny’s eyes widened as he saw this and braced himself as the splashed all over him. He waited for blast to subside and then looked around. The blast seemed to have failed to do anything to him as he was still in the air and still on fire. This was apparently not the result Hydro-Man had expected as he hovered in the air with a perplexed looked on his face.

Johnny smirked at Hydro-Man and asked, “Hey buddy, did you just try to put my flames out?”

Hydro-Man continued to stare perplexed before he said, “…Yes.”

Johnny’s smirk turned into a grin as he said. “Buddy, I can go as hot as the sun. Did you really think you could put me out with your little splashes of water?”

Hydro-Man grimaced as he growled, “Yes.”

Johnny performed a tiny mocking clap and then without looking away from Hydro-Man, he quickly fired off a blast that connected with Trapster’s back and knocked him down.

From somewhere down the street Spidey called out, “Thanks Johnny.”

Johnny then pointed at Hydro-Man as he asked, “Do you know at what temperature water turns to steam? I don’t actually know but I’m curious to find out!” With that Johnny fired off a superhot blast towards Hydro-Man.

Hydro-Man’s eyes widened. He turned tail and tried his best to get away from the fireball that was chasing after him. Johnny didn’t get to see the end result of this as he suddenly felt himself get pulled super-fast towards the ground- Too fast to try and react as he slammed into the ground feet first and felt something…. both his legs shatter. Johnny screamed out in pain and collapsed to the ground, he tried to push himself up with both his arms but a fist smashed him across the face and sent him back to the pavement as stars swam across his eyes.

Down the street a ways Spidey had taken advantage of Johnny’s assistance to kick the crap out of Trapster as he mumbled to himself, “I can’t believe I almost got my ass kicked by Past-Pot Pete.”

Trapster apparently heard this as he swung as he swung a fist at Spidey while growling, “It’s Trapster!” He swung too wide with the punch and Spidey capitalized by driving his knee into Trapster’s face sending him sprawling on the pavement. Spidey snorted and was about to make another quip when he saw Johnny getting smacked across the face further down the street.

“Dammit, this is not going well,” he mumbled to himself as he began trying to break out of the glue wrapped around his body. As he tried to do this his spider sense began firing off and he leapt into the air and over Titania who tried to punch a hole through his back.

Spidey landed behind Titania and attempted to kick her in the head. However Titania caught his foot in her hand and gave him a wicked grin. Spidey’s eyes widened as he realized what she was going to do.

“Oh shiAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHH.” Titania punched him as hard as she could in the balls. Spidey shrieked at the top of his lungs as this happened, loud enough that Wizard looked up in surprise and down the street in Spidey’s direction. Titania then got a good grip on Spidey’s leg and whipped him around and threw him through a nearby department store window.

Wizard nodded his head in approval and called out to Titania. “Good work Titania, grab Trapster and get over here quick, we need to finish this.” He began looking around the area trying to locate where Hydro-Man had gotten to. Unable to locate him he let out an annoyed sigh and shouted out. “Hydro-Man, get over here!” Nothing happened for a few seconds then Hydro-Man rose up out of a nearby sewer looking both very angry and very singed.

Wizard looked him up and down and asked, “Well you look like you’re in pretty bad shape, where were you just now?”

Hydro-Man glared at Johnny who was trying to rise up again and pointed a finger while growling, “I was trying to undo all the boiling damage he did to me with that fireball, also there were some cops a few blocks over trying to unstick a man from the side of a van. And I figured I should take them out before they came to investigate all the noise we’re making.”

Wizard nodded and turned his gaze back onto Johnny who back up to his elbows and trying to turn towards Wizard.

Wizard gestured towards Johnny and said to Hydro-Man, “Would you like to do the honors?” An evil grin spread across Hydro-Man’s face as he floated up into the air and prepared a big wave.

“I may not be able to put you out Torch, but I sure can put you down.” And with that Hydro-Man unleashed a giant wave that went smashing down onto Johnny. Johnny gagged and sputtered as he was crushed against the pavement. He tried to struggle and heat himself up but the pressure was too much and he flamed off and into unconsciousness.

Wizard waved Hydro-Man off as Johnny flamed off and went over to check Johnny pulse. After confirming that Johnny was still alive he injected him with a sedative and glanced over his shoulder towards Titania as she came walking up with a limping Trapster. Pointing at Johnny he barked at Titania.

“Put the cuffs on him. We’re done here.” Titania nodded went over to put a pair of high tech hand cuffs on Johnny before picking him up and slinging his unconscious body over her shoulder.

She glanced back down the street to the window where she threw Spidey and said, “What about Spider-Man?”

Wizard shrugged his shoulders and began to rise up in the air. “He’s not the target. If he tries to stop us put him down. If not, leave him. We’re on a time table here.” And with that he took off up into and sky. Hydro-Man, Titania, and Trapster all gave each other a look before shrugging and activating the gravity rings Wizard gave them and following him. Not a one of them noticed the tiny spider shaped tracking beacon attached to Trapster’s backpack as they flew up and away.